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| Mehdi Neimi |
During a ceremony organized on December 29 by Ayatollah Amili, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in Ardabil, offensive remarks were made against the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan. At the same time, anti-Turkish propaganda in Iranian media and political circles has entered a new phase.
Political activist and analyst Mehdi Neimi, in an interview with Voice of America, discussed the increasing activities against Turkey and Azerbaijan in Iran, as well as the nature of the December 29 ceremony held at Ardabil’s Grand Mosque under the title "From Ashura to Chaldiran, From Chaldiran to the Emergence – Resistance."
Neimi believes that the reason this particular ceremony was held in Ardabil is related both to the role Ardabil has in Iran’s official historical narrative and to the fact that Seyyed Hasan Amili serves as the city’s Imam:
"Holding this event in Ardabil might be because they think the people of Ardabil are inclined towards such issues. However, as we saw, that inclination wasn’t as strong as they had expected. They assumed that since Ardabil has historically been a cultural hub in the Shia world, its people would have a natural tendency toward these matters. Perhaps they wanted to manipulate sectarian, or rather, doctrinal emotions and use them to their advantage."
Neimi emphasizes that policies based on manipulating sectarian sentiments and historical narratives in Iranian Azerbaijan, including Ardabil, no longer produce the desired results.
"They believed that they could shape and manipulate these people like dough in their hands, just as they did in the past. But what happened in Ardabil showed that they failed. The people’s mindset has changed, and they can no longer be easily molded. As someone from Ardabil myself, I say with regret that in the past, our situation was such that regimes like this could exploit us. But based on the recent events, the hundreds of comments and reactions I have seen from the people of Ardabil, and the conversations I have had, I can say that the outcome was the complete opposite—people no longer accept such policies. In fact, out of a population of over one million, only a very small number attended that ceremony," the political activist added.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Mehdi Nəimi: Ərdəbil əhalisi artıq Tehranın məzhəb və tarixi rəvayətlər üzərindən oynadığı oyunlara gəlmir